veiled eaten plastic plant, help pls

luvcats22

New Member
hi, i am in the u.k and have a lovely veiled cham called murphy, he is almost a yr old.
i think he may have eaten one of the leaves off the only blooming plastic plant in his cage,and he has vomited a few times (3)
he hasnt vomited the leaf.
i have been in touch with my reptile vets,and they said to just wait for it to pass, but murphy isnt eating now. its been two days since he ate the leaf,and he is spending a lot of time basking,so i have upped the temps to around 34c in the hottest part of the cage. (measured/regulated by a thermostat)
is there anything i can do to help him pass/vomit the leaf back?
 
How big was the leaf compared to the chameleon's mouth?
Can you see it down his throat if he gapes? (And please don't just pull it out if you can in case you cut him doing so).
 
He is basking because he wants to try and digest the plant.... but he won't be able to.... Keep him warm so his body can keep things 'moving'... if it isn't huge maybe it will pass through. Soaking him in warm water will help him move it along. just an inch or so of water... enough to get his belly wet and warm.

I am not sure if this would work in this situation but I have heard of people putting a drop of veg oil in the chams mouth to help lube things at the other end.... I heard this once for a cham that was impacted... Anyone have any ideas?
 
hi, thanks for the replies, no the leaf isnt visible anywhere in his mouth or throat. the leaf was about an inch long,by maybe three quarters of an inch wide.
it is impossible to soak him in warm water, he totally isnt handleable at all.
i have noticed this morning he is drinking a lot, normally he runs away from the spray bottle but today he walked upto it and drank direct from the nozzle (warm water) for a good few minutes, hopefully he will keep the water down and not throw up. i am obviously giving him a 'starve' day today to see if that helps at all.
hope he is ok......
 
Can you get him out into "real" sunlight? I've noticed that my chams often poop after being outdoors for a while. I'm sure it's a combination of more intense light, the strange surroundings, and increased activity.
 
Sunlight used to work wonders for Lily's bowels, lol! You could almost guarantee a poop if you put her out in the sun! We have just had the only warm sunny day this week in the UK and it still wasn't warm enough really to put a cham outside. If he has eaten the leaf, would it not cause more damage internally if it was encouraged to come out either end of the cham? I would suggest a vet visit and maybe an xray to locate the position of the leaf.

You say he 'may' have eaten one of the leaves. I would take everything out of the cage just in case you can find the offending leaf - it may have got stuck in a real plant rather than him eating it. If that was Amy I would have had a right panic, and rushed her straight to the vets. Good luck with him.
 
due to it being plastic the vets dont think it will show up on an x-ray, i am fairly sure he has eaten this leaf, however, he has been quite active this evening,and enjoyed a good drink of warm water from his dripper. i love taking him out for real sun,however in the u.k at the moment it is blooming freezing :)
he has pooped today,no sign of the leaf, but he seems to be acting quite normal today, no sign of vomiting. so i will try him with some food again tomorrow and take it from there.
 
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